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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Last Gasp for Hollywood Playhouse?

This was posted on Facebook by Rene Barrett:

To Friends of the Hollywood Playhouse:

This is a call for help. The City Commission of Hollywood meets for the last time before their summer break and a public forum is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, July 18 at 5:00 pm at the City Hall commission Chambers. We need people willing to get up and speak on behalf of preservation of the Hollywood Playhouse.

Here is the update: The City of Hollywood is in negotiations with the Trans Capital Bank as well as litigation over the reverter clause in the Charter ceding the property for the use as a theater in perpetuity. While it may be legally true that the reverter clause was fractured in order to secure a mortgage to save the theater property, the City’s obligation should not have changed as a public cultural trust.

At the outset of this effort to save and restore the Hollywood Playhouse, the City Commission was asked to create an advisory board that would have the ability to work with the bank and outside interests to develop a viable plan for the future of the Hollywood Playhouse. That Board would answer to the City Commission.

The Hollywood City Commission has not created that advisory board. The Hollywood City Commission has not even taken a public position on the disposition of the property.

There is an understanding that the Hollywood City Commission offered to allow the bank to take the property to create condominiums and make the property taxable. If this is true, the politicians on our City Commission then would appear to have violated a public trust and endangered the future of this very unique and potentially valuable cultural center for its citizens for the prospect of a few shekels in the city coffers. The bank refused the offer.

We have been advised that the Trans Capital Bank wants to see greater flexibility in the reverter clause to make the property more attractive for investment as a cultural center.

At this time, we need speakers to ask the City Commission to 1) Create the Advisory Board; 2) negotiate in good faith to secure the future of the Hollywood Playhouse; 3) publicly affirm their position and intent to protect the public trust of the Hollywood citizenry by securing that property for the future as a unique historical cultural center for the City of Hollywood. Speaker after speaker with the same message would be good.

If you can't be there (but we do need a presence), a one line message to email will suffice: "Form an Advisory Board Now"